Grandpa Pauline made the best eggplant parmesan. She was meticulous in placing the thinly sliced and peeled eggplant between paper towels to get rid of excess moisture. And she fried each medallion with crisco oil in her heavy cast iron pan. I’m sure it was a labor of love, but I didn’t have the spoons for that today. But I had eggplants that needed to be cooked and some old Italian bread that was on it’s last days. And my son suggested that I make eggplant parmesan subs! I could skip the casserole part completely and just layer breaded eggplant slices with marinara and sliced cheese. THAT sounded tenable even for a mid day lunch. We used our convection oven, but these would work really well in an air fryer too.
Easy Eggplant Grinders
Ingredients
Instructions
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We used the food processor to make fresh breadcrumbs with some of the Italian bread. Then seasoned with basil, onion powder and salt/pepper. Next we mixed four eggs in a separate shallow bowl And seasoned flour in a third bowl for classic breading. We kept the peel on our eggplant (which contains a powerful antioxidant called nasunin), but you can certainly take it off if you prefer. Instead of slicing circles, we sliced the eggplant length wise, which would work well for our hoggies and it meant few slices, so easier prep. We dipped the slices in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and placed on a wire rack atop a baking sheet. Drizzle or brush the tops with a bit of oil.
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We used the convection setting on 400° on the oven which made for a crisp, crunchy filet in about 10-15 minutes. We used the Vitamix and a large can of organic tomatoes, seasoned with the same palate as the flour (basil, onion powder, salt pepper) and used the soup setting to create a wonderful fresh sauce in five minutes.
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Next assemble and serve. If your marinara sauce is hot, it should melt the cheese perfectly for these hot grinders. If not, pop the sandwich back in the oven for five minutes and serve with extra marina for dipping if desired.
